Tuesday, 22 May 2012

The clearing infested with snakes

Grass Snake and Ramsons

With the dust barely settled after the
recent house move, I’m beginning to get a feel for the new surroundings.The feeders are out in the garden and the
list is up to 40; Green Woodpeckers and Nuthatches every day are a bit of a
novelty so far. House Martins have
returned to old nests under the eaves.

Just beyond the garden, Wormley Woods
stretches in all directions. ‘Wormley’
apparently is derived from the old English word meaning ‘the clearing infested
with snakes’.The ‘Woods’ themselves are
considered the best UK example of Sessile Oak-Hornbeam woodland, a stand-type
found on acidic, well drained soils. The ground flora of such woods is often
poor, with abundant bramble, bracken and honeysuckle but little else.However, some specialities do occur; Wild Service
Tree, Great Wood-rush and Golden-scaled Male Fern.The woods have a series of deeply cut streams
running through them, many of the flatter areas swathed in Ramsons and
Golden-saxifrage.These were the woods
of the Redstart, Hawfinch, Nightjar and Woodcock in Hertfordshire, now all thin
on the ground or gone. The snakes are still there though.

The first trips out into the local
patch have not been that exciting. Woodpeckers, Nuthatches and a few flyover
Crossbills, which appear to have bred locally. Today was a better day though; a calling
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and a fly-over Honey Buzzard.The decline in Lesser spots has been
attributed to low breeding success, with a lack of food being a possible
cause.The disappearance of one of the
adults, often the female, is suggested as the cause of failure, with the
remaining parent failing to bring in enough food.Female Lesser spots have been shown to have
lower survival compared to males and their disappearance may be an adaptive
strategy, but it fails to work if the male cannot up the provisioning rate to
match that of two birds.

A grizzled old ecologist/birder, usually to be found roaming around the Lee Valley and occasionally further afield. Fortunate to be involved in the management of some of the UK's finest nature reserves and always looking for ways of improving them for birds.